


Control

by KatWritesTheGay



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - The Fire Nation Won, Control Issues, F/F, Jealousy, Ty Lee didn't betray Azula at Boiling Rock but did not help either
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:29:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22073302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KatWritesTheGay/pseuds/KatWritesTheGay
Summary: "It’s control, that she recognizes and knows."Ty Lee broaches the subject of a potential marriage to a fellow noble.
Relationships: Azula/Ty Lee (Avatar)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 132





	Control

**Author's Note:**

> A short Tyzula-esque drabble for the new year.  
> Enjoy.

It was too easy. Ty Lee is a pitiful Pai Sho player, but Azula doesn’t invite her because she wants a challenging opponent. She wants her near, under her eye. What free time the former acrobat has is poorly spent otherwise. The _subjectively_ handsome and horribly naive Lord Wu surely has less destructive hobbies and better prospects.

The light of the full moon cuts through the gaps between curtains, leaving Ty Lee’s features as the only thing concealed in shadow. Their positions are typically reversed on nights such as this.

“You’re so brilliant, Azula. I doubt anyone could win against you.”

Azula wonders if Ty Lee knows how fatuous she sounds.

She wonders if that is the point.

The normally chirpy noblewoman is uncharacteristically silent for a time, though Azula can practically hear what few gears there are turning in her head before she chooses to speak again. “My parents have been broaching the topic of marriage.”

The last time her parents had written to her was several months ago. Azula knows this for a fact. Little goes on within her palace without at least seven people tripping over themselves in their haste to report it to her. 

“Have they now?” A sigh, a glance at her sharp fingernails. “Don’t let yourself become so concerned. You are in the service of your Fire Lord, not bound to your parents’ whims.”

“What if I want to?”

There it was. Ty Lee could have anything she wanted. Almost anything. Living in the palace with the Fire Lord’s favor was far more than the sixth daughter of some small provincial nobleman could ever hope for. She was beautiful, yes, but not a rarity by far. After all, there were six other women with her exact face. There was no possible gain other than to slip away from her, to betray her as Mai had. As she too had done in her own way. It had been generous of Azula to have pardoned her inaction at Boiling Rock. 

“Want to what?”

“Marry…”

The tension in her shoulders increased and her posture stiffened imperceptibly. “Then I would tell you that a courtship would be poorly timed.” Azula’s voice was smooth, even, yet something underneath simmered, boiled- like the jealous, needing, wrathful thing stirring within her chest. “There is unrest within the Earth Kingdom.”

“There has been since the comet.”

“Indeed.”

It’s control, that she recognizes and knows. It is acceptable. It is simpler to place her other desires concerning the acrobat in that box as well. Not infatuation, certainly not love. One can want and possess without weaker attachment. That is all it could ever be, even so.

Father burned years ago. She could still remember the sharp scent in the air as his funeral pyre took him. It smelled the same as the traitors she had burned alive after the insurrection in Fountain City; Ty Lee was made to witness it. -There should have been no surprise. All living ashes look the same. Like Mother, however, he too remains. Azula sees him on moonless nights; watching from beyond the tomb, waiting for her to disappoint him.

Acting upon her more clandestine desires would easily do so. The lesser noble was not politically worth consideration and she was already giving her everything she truly needed from her. It would be indulgent at best, pyrrhic at worst.

“Do you still wish to marry, Ty Lee?”

“Do you want me to?”

“No.”

“Then no.”

Ty Lee’s expression is hidden in shadow as she helps reset the board for another game and waits; for her move or her dismissal. Their hands might have nearly brushed as Azula reclaimed her pieces.


End file.
